[VWAllstar]

Originally Posted by puneetakhouri

Update

So today I received a call from Shivam Autozone MIDC, and the CRM said that she has received the call from Maruti. They will be inspecting my car and will be repairing the rusted areas as a goodwill even thought my warranty has expired and they do not give body work warranty.
These, I feel, are the small things which make the ownership experience so pleasant and make you a customer for life.

Had a similar experience with Bhavna Ford last year. A call is all what it took for them to paint by bumper when there was a paint fault.

These small good gestures makes big impression when it comes to customer satisfaction.

I would suggest ask them to check the entire car and take preemptive measures so that it does not reoccur again.

[puneetakhouri]

Originally Posted by VWAllstar

I would suggest ask them to check the entire car and take preemptive measures so that it does not reoccur again.

Thanks! Yeah that is what I intend to do when I see the Service center guys. I will ensure we get the car up in the ramp and investigate the underbody as well.

[self_driven]

Originally Posted by puneetakhouri

They will be inspecting my car and will be repairing the rusted areas as a goodwill.

That's good to hear.

how normal is rusting in a 4 year old Maruti

Let alone Maruti, any modern car should remain rust-free for a lot more than 4 years. My Swift is over 5 years old and doesn't have any visible rust spots. Other 4-5 year old Maruti cars (including a Baleno) in my friend circle are also intact. So rusting in a 4 year old car is certainly not a normal thing.

[puneetakhouri]

Originally Posted by self_driven

Let alone Maruti, any modern car should remain rust-free for a lot more than 4 years. My Swift is over 5 years old and doesn't have any visible rust spots. Other 4-5 year old Maruti cars (including a Baleno) in my friend circle are also intact. So rusting in a 4 year old car is certainly not a normal thing.

Even I think so but there are certain things that might affect it like

• I am in Mumbai so there is humidity all year round
• My car gets a wash by the watchman daily
• You never know what is the quality and source of water used for cleaning

I also observed paint bubbles near the door handle where rusting appeared. I made it a point to show it to the SA who came to inspect my car a couple of hours ago.
Let's hope this issue is sorted out soon, good thing is that Maruti is involved now.

[Researcher]

Originally Posted by puneetakhouri

Update - Dent and scratch removal
Never give your car with more than a quarter tank of fuel. I made the mistake of refuleing just a day before handing over the car. When I received it back, 1/4th fuel was gone.
The one below is the rear left fender which the rick scratched me
And this one is the right fender one which, not surprisingly, was given by another rick
Overall a very hassle free experience except for the slowness of the entire process. Workshops are simply glorified as NEXA and are no different to any garage whatsoever.

Coincidentally, our car has damages at the same locations due to two separate incidents (a year back and two months back respectively), but we haven't bothered to sort that out.
If I remember correctly, the job card has a section where they note the amount of fuel in the car when you submit the car at the center. I hope this helps if you want to escalate, but then it will be a sour experience afterwards if you decide to take your vehicle back to them for some other work. But I would definitely agree with the fact that the differentiation between Maruti and Nexa workshops is far less than the differentiation between their showrooms.

Originally Posted by puneetakhouri

So today a random walk around the car revealed another rusting spot near the front left door handle . What surprises me is that my car stays inside a covered parking at home and travels to covered parking in office. It is seldom exposed to the elements unless I go out of town so rusting is something that I was not expecting so early.
This is the boot door part
And this is the door handle

I have observed that the water, especially around the door sills and boot lock mechanism, if not properly dried after a wash or rains, leaves a orange residue over time which I think may be the reason for premature rusting and is avoidable.

[puneetakhouri]

Originally Posted by Researcher

If I remember correctly, the job card has a section where they note the amount of fuel in the car when you submit the car at the center. I hope this helps if you want to escalate, but then it will be a sour experience afterwards if you decide to take your vehicle back to them for some other work.

Yeah I showed it to the SA right away before even taking delivery. He first try to evade it by saying that it is a minor dip only but when I showed him that it is 1/4th tank fuel, then he says that the mechanics turn on the AC and sit in the car. I first thought to ask him for a 5 litre fuel coupon like they give during delivery but held back.

Originally Posted by Researcher

I have observed that the water, especially around the door sills and boot lock mechanism, if not properly dried after a wash or rains, leaves a orange residue over time which I think may be the reason for premature rusting and is avoidable.

The place on the boot where my car got the rust is the part where the boot touches the rubber beading, so water contacting that area from outside seems highly unlikely. However, there are two drain holes on the inside of the boot door near the sides. I feel that some manufacturing defect is preventing water from draining from those and accumulating in the area where the door is rusting from inside. This also seems plausible because I got that area sanded and touched up last year and yet the rust cropped up again from within.

BTW, still awaiting reply from Maruti or the dealer regarding the next steps. Been a week so far, let's see what they decide to do.

[puneetakhouri]

Update -
So yesterday, 3 people (SA, Denter, Paint company executive) from the nearby Nexa (Shivam Autozone) visited my office and inspected my car yet again. They did a detailed inspection to check for other rust spots but we did not find any. I even got them to remove the plastic cladding from the boot to look inside if the rusting was from within but it was not the case.

So today I receive the call that I should give the car for repairing tomorrow . They will be scrubbing off paint from front left door, apply epoxy and then paint it again. For the boot, it will have the same from within.
The dealer says that he will hand me the car back in 1 day which makes me suspect that they might just touch it up and hand it over and I won't let that happen.

P.S. So while leaving I was talking to the paint company's executive about the paint so he told me a couple of things.

• Maruti uses Nerolac paint as the OEM paint.
• But for dealers and workshops, they use Axalta or PPG paints.
• Quality of water is the primary reason for premature rusting and washing should be avoided as much as possible.
• He suggested using distilled water to wash.

[puneetakhouri]

So I gave my car last Thursday to the workshop for the repairs. They promised me the car the very next day but I said I am not in a hurry and would rather have a nicer job with a day's delay than a shoddy one at the earliest. As expected, the next evening when I called them about when to come to take the delivery, they asked me to come the next day. I was prepared for it so it was fine. Just to remind all of you, this repair was totally done under goodwill by Maruti Suzuki

The pre-repair photos can be found here.

And post the repair the pics are here

The boot rusting area - Sorted


The door handle rusting, looks a bit odd when you look closely but overall its done.


Since they painted the entire upper portion of the left door, I was concerned about colour mismatch. But they matched it very well.



Also the SA told me that the door is rusting from inside near the handle area and I should claim insurance and get the door replaced entirely .

I am thinking of postponing that till the end of the monsoons this year.

Overall a decent work done, but what baffles me is that the art of repairing is totally lost and now it is all about replacing parts..

[puneetakhouri]

Mumbai Baleno Owners Club Republic Day Drive

So the BOCM (Baleno Owners Club Mumbai) organized a Republic day breakfast drive to mark our Republic day as well as the second anniversary of the club.

The participation was not very high as compared to the previous monsoon drives that they had, probably due to a lot of people having their own or family commitments, but still a decent number of vehicle owners took time out to be a part of the drive.

The drive was to a place called Parsi Dhaba at Talasari near Maharashtra Gujarat border. The drive was excellent with the day being a Sunday and weather being nice with less traffic.

Sharing some pics from the drive

1. Meeting at Kinara Dhaba, Vasai


2. Reached the Parsi Dhaba and cars lined up in the parking


3. The Anniversary cake


4. After the breakfast, the people posing together. Spot the T-Bhp tshirt, and you can add a face to my name


5. People with their cars. Took some requesting so that other car owners stay out of this one


6. Parting shot at a nearby dam.

[puneetakhouri]

Guys had a question and needed help.
So recently my PUC was about to expire and so I went to the nearest PUC guy. I asked him if he did PUC for a BS4 vehicle to which he said he has hardware only for BS3 vehicle. So I went to some other PUC guy who had hardware for BS4 vehicles.

But when he checked the RTO record for my car, it showed that my car is a BS3 vehicle .

Now as per my knowledge, the Baleno has always been a BS4 vehicle.
A couple of people told me to talk to the showroom as this is a botch up on their end while presenting documents to the RTO.

But was just curious to know that what documents can be used to prove that the car is a BS4 and not BS4.

Thanks!

[ashvek3141]

Originally Posted by puneetakhouri

Guys had a question and needed help.
So recently my PUC was about to expire and so I went to the nearest PUC guy. I asked him if he did PUC for a BS4 vehicle to which he said he has hardware only for BS3 vehicle. So I went to some other PUC guy who had hardware for BS4 vehicles.

But when he checked the RTO record for my car, it showed that my car is a BS3 vehicle .

Now as per my knowledge, the Baleno has always been a BS4 vehicle.
A couple of people told me to talk to the showroom as this is a botch up on their end while presenting documents to the RTO.

But was just curious to know that what documents can be used to prove that the car is a BS4 and not BS4.

Thanks!

Hi Puneet, unfortunately you cannot do anything about it. I too faced a similar situation about a month back when I visited a PUC centre to get one done for my 2015 Creta. The system is so designed that it automatically pulls data from the RTO servers and selects the fuel norms accordingly. The sad part however is that the BS IV fuel norms are set in their system for cars registered from 2018 onwards!! Initially I thought that this was an issue with the RTO in Goa only; but now it looks like a bigger goof up!
This is purely a daylight robbery!!
Heck, those guys don’t even budge, no matter how much you explain them about the engine norms & stuff. Even worse, you don’t have a single evidence mentioning that your car is a BS IV compliant & not III.
Maybe we just have to live with shelling out twice the money for getting the PUC in a year!

[Aney Kadam]

First of all thank you Puneet for this amazing and detailed review of Maruti Baleno.

My family owns a 2018 Maruti Baleno Zeta, before lockdown I used to drive that car everyday (college to home and home to college total distance bout 50km).
My car used to stall on me every time I faced the incline therefore I asked our Nexa workshop to help me with this problem. They changed my clutch settings now the car takes off in 1st gear without any throttle input but the down side is clutch is bit hard its takes some efforts to press down the clutch. Workshop guys said it will not harm or damage my gearbox or engine in any way, since I am young (20) and I am the only one who drives this car for 99% of the time. I told the Nexa Service advisor to change the clutch settings.

This was all done last year and i did not find any issues with.

Now fast forward to June 2020. My car suffered a major damage because of a rear end collision. You can read all about the accident here - https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/drive...ml#post4834930

I could not get my car repaired at my regular Nexa workshop in Bhandup because of lack of man power so I reluctantly gave my car to Vitesse's Prabhadevi workshop.

Its been almost 20 days now, I got a call from Vitesse Prabhadevi that some vibrations are coming the engine.

I had the engine checked just before the accident and Nexa service advisor had said everything was fine.

My question is what could go wrong in engine in just 20 days? Or is it because I change my clutch settings? (in the accident I was rear ended so I don't think that would have to do something with my engine)

[puneetakhouri]

Update
So with the lockdown in place since March, my car had just done 100 kms since then till June end. Which is fine given the circumstances and I would take her out for a 2-3 km spin around my colony and let her idle for sometime once every week or 10 days. But as it seems to be not ending and cases spiraling out of control in Mumbai, I decided to head back to my hometown for a couple of months till the offices call us back or things normalize.
Since my car is almost 4.5 years old, the 60k kms run tyres and battery were my main concern. My car had not given me any problems till now which I believe is because of the regular running that the car was doing for the last 4.5 years.
This is the list of things I did before leaving.

• Topped up tyre pressure to 40psi in all tyres including the spare wheel so that the tyres remain firm and have a smaller spot where they touch the ground. I also remember that when I got my car delivered, the car initially had 43psi of pressure in each tyre. I have my own portable air pump so this was easy.
• Disconnected the negative terminal of the battery. I wanted to disconnect the positive but it was a lot simpler to disconnect the negative. Note- The boot door will not open once battery is disconnected, also central locking will not work and each door needs to be locked manually.
• Added naphthalene balls in the boot and floor mats, also a few inside the engine bay.
• Added some tobacco from cigarette in the bonnet under the engine to keep rats away. Although I see cat pugmarks on my car very frequently which has kind of given me a relief that rodents should not be a big problem .
• Added WD40 to all the door, dickie, bonnet joints and hinges to prevent rusting.
• Wanted to add a small steel mesh in the exhaust pipe so that rodents dont enter. But was scared that I might forget to take it out when I come back.

[puneetakhouri]

Originally Posted by ashvek3141

Hi Puneet, unfortunately you cannot do anything about it. !

Thanks Ashvek. This post 2018 being BS IV seems to be quite a plausible answer for this problem. But I was thinking if maybe even the invoice of the car has BSIV mentioned, I can give it a shot. Unfortunately, I am not in Mumbai and my documents are locked at home so this has to wait. But maybe if you can also check your car documents if the invoice has the BSIV mentioned, then maybe that can be used to rectify this with the RTO?

Originally Posted by Aney Kadam

First of all thank you Puneet for this amazing and detailed review of Maruti Baleno.

My question is what could go wrong in engine in just 20 days? Or is it because I change my clutch settings? (in the accident I was rear ended so I don't think that would have to do something with my engine)

Happy that you liked the review Aney. I went through your other post regarding the accident and am so impressed by your overall handling of the situation. Right from asking the well-being of the people involved to dealing with the police. I am damn sure I did not have that composure when I was 20.
Now coming to your question, I used to give my vehicle to Sai Service Dadar, you could have tried there as they are nice. From what I have heard about Vitesse, they are a decent workshop and get things done.
Also I believe the bump on the front bumpers might have caused something that could have caused this, if not the clutch. However, if the car is being repaired under insurance so your worries are less. But it would not hurt to just ask them the root cause for this and let them investigate.

[Aney Kadam]

Thanks for the advice puneet, i will go to vitesse workshop tomorrow itself and take a look at what "vibrations" vitesse SA was talking about and at the same time ask him about the bump on the front bumper.
I will let you know what is the main happens tomorrow and then discuss the best way of tackling this issue.
thank you teambhp.

I am very exited to see my batmobile